It appears UK police have been deceived by LulzSec. (Source: Warner Brothers)

The man they believed to be a member of LulzSec was reportedly a famous internet troll, whom a LulzSec member "stole" the name of. This could prove the latest embarasment for UK police. (Source: Gaming Union)

LulzSec has a proud history of trickery. Thus far all its supposed "members" who were arrested turned out to be youths who had run afoul of LulzSec parent org. Anonymous. The arrests appear cleverly orchestrated by LulzSec as retribution on behalf on Anonymous. The latest incident seems to be a similar case of misdirection and trickery. (Source: LulzSec)

One blog claims this man to be the "real" LulzSec Topiary, as seen in an Anonymous press interview. (Source: YouTube)

Chat logs, video evidence indicate that the arrest was the result of misdirection

Earlier today the blogosphere lit up with news that "Topiary" a key hacker from Anonymous and LulzSec was arrested. Topiary, along with "Sabu", was viewed as a LulzSec "chief", instrumental in orchestrating the group's many sophisticated attacks [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. But all may not be as it seems.

I. The Arrest

If the arrested man was indeed LulzSec's Topiary, he couldn't have picked a much more perfect lair. Much like a James Bond villain, the alleged hacker was arrested on a remote island -- one of the Shetland Islands, off the north coast of Britain's mainland.

Police transported the 19-year-old suspect to central-London, for interrogation. Police say they're also searching for a 17-year-old related to the case in Lincolnshire, a eastern province of the mainland.

Police characterized the arrest as a "pre-planned, intelligence-led operation".

Topiary's Twitter account fell silent about a week ago, and many posts were deleted from it. The sole remaining post, dating to July 21, played Medger Ever's iconic quote "You can not kill an idea", stating, "You cannot arrest an idea."

To add to the picture, LulzSecurity's website has been down on and off for the last few weeks, being on life-support thanks to a CloudFlare cached copy.

Given these details and the UK government's insistence they had nabbed their man, the media jumped into a fervor. And the public gobbled it up, as they had long expected LulzSec's brass to be apprehended and redirected towards a local penitentiary.

II. Details Conflict

But this open and shut case might not be so open and shut. Last month the blog site LulzSecurityExposed supposedly "doxed" (published the real world identity of) Topiary. They claim he's changed names more times than Prince and their accounting puts him nowhere near Scotland.

So which is the true Topiary? The arrest 19 year old Scotland native? Or the at-large 23 year old Swede? There's more to come.

III. Chat Logs Indicate UK Police Are Being Duped

London's police force are desperate for some good press. Amid the resignation of London's police chief and allegations of bribery, the arrest could be a huge victory for the department. In recent years the police have been battered by a long string of embarrassments, including an invasive camera scheme, which failed to reduce crime rates.

A series of chat logs published by anti-LulzSec American "hacktivist", th3j35t3r ("The Jester") indicate, however, that the department may be enmeshed in another debacle.

The logs are as follows:[removed]: S'up Daniel
Topiary: s'appening [removed]
[removed]: You OK?
Topiary: could be better, you seen the pdf table thing with all the names I take it?[removed]: Saw that, but you seen the thing today?
Topiary: bro I've been playing it off since fakegregg said something about Zelda[removed]: ah, well, you should keep low man
Topiary: I can't at this point, I need to just straight up deny it 100% and flaunt it everywhere
Topiary: but I trust you, you know how it is
Topiary:if I go hide then people will assume the dox are right
Topiary:so I'll just act like they failed hard
[removed]: True that - so you need to make a big show of disproving them
Topiary: yeah well, this is my plan:
Topiary:(as you know I stole this nickname from a troll last December, didn't work out so well)
Topiary: I'll just keep denying it until they try to go after the troll
Topiary: then they'll think that's me and harass him
[removed]: then he harasses back?
Topiary: yeah but if I deny my real dox enough, people will go looking for other doxTopiary: then nobody will believe I'm me
Topiary:and all you bastards told me my Brit voice was good, damnit
Topiary: did they get voice recognition?
[removed]:well when you talk the Swedish accent comes out a bit
[removed]: but not for a couple of minutes
Topiary:these faggots aren't hitting the UK ni$%*r TopiaryTopiary: why aren't they?
Topiary:I'm hoping someone will go after him and think it's me, then I'll act all scared etc
[removed]: then boom - you drop all the heat on him
Topiary:ANYTHING to divert attention from that fuckign nameshub
Topiary: I'm assuming they put that to Feds
Topiary: so I might be raided soon
Topiary: fucking shitTopiary: goddamnit
[removed]: that "nameshub" thing exposed a few peopl
[removed]: have the feds any jurisdiction in Sweden?
[removed]: ohwait
[removed]: shit :/
Topiary: don't know but I'm shitting bricks
Topiary: so I don't know what to do
Topiary: so I'm just playing it off
Topiary: "Who the fuck is Daniel Sandberg?", the whole story[removed]:well, hopefully someone will go after the troll you stole the name off
Topiary:they should have already
Topiary:hoping so dude
Topiary: because I don't want this shit
Topiary: but yeah I deleted everything recently
[removed]: rm -rf
[removed]: fuck, I hope you DBAN-ed
Topiary: I'd like to make it to the end of the month, how long do they take to raid?Topiary: better not hit me on April fool's day
Topiary: but yeah maybe they'll just think backtrace is a joke and not go after me[removed]: Well shit, how long before they raided no that time?
Topiary: not very long
Topiary: bro why haven't you done what I did?
Topiary: find some network and steal someone's nick
Topiary: like someone you don't like
Topiary: then do illegal shit
Topiary: and they hit them instead
Topiary: you're using a real name
[removed]: never thought to do it...
[removed]: I'd advise taking a hammer to your drives thoughTopiary: wouldn't that look suspicious if they come?
Topiary: maybe things just have to be normal
[removed]: hmmmm. use a guttmann pass - you know, like DBAN on crack?[removed]: then reload windows or something
Topiary: yeah
Topiary:just hoping that they'll take the bait
Topiary:the fucker has been using Topiary for like a year
Topiary:trolling everyone
Topiary:for no reasonTopiary:so now we troll him, hope he's getting raidedTopiary: well whatever, we both discussed this like last year
Topiary: so...
Topiary: then I'll stop my twitter and everything
Topiary: but it isn't FUCKING WORKING
[removed]: make it look like they got the right guy
Topiary: yup
[removed]: it is also
Topiary: fucking tired of people adding me on Facebook
Topiary: to be honest I'm just gonna continue the Zelda casts as normal
Topiary: it would look REALLY weird if they stopped
[removed]: it shouldnt fsck with your normal life
Topiary: yeah, right, right
Topiary: agreed
Topiary: so that's what I'll do
Topiary: just keep it cool and carry on with it
[removed]: frame up this damn trollfaggot, and "carry on"
Topiary:hope it blows over and they start doxing Ireland fag or Scotland fag or wherever the fuck UK part he's fromTopiary: anyway I trust you so yeah
Topiary: we can keep this between us
[removed]: Wont say a word bro
[removed]: just take care
Topiary: okay gotta go
Topiary: thanks for advic
[removed]: bye!

If the above commentary is to be believed it sounds like the UK police has fallen hook line and sinker for LulzSec and Topiary's ploy. And so did the mass media [1][2].

IV. Not the First Time the Police and Media Were Duped

Back on June 6, the internet lit up with reports of a LulzSec "arrest". Only, it turns out the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations appears to have been duped into arresting Robert Cavenaugh ("XYZ"), a ex-Anonymous youth who the group had doxed after he published private server logs from the group.

Anonymous had it out for Mr. Cavenaugh, and thus he made the perfect fall guy for them. And best of all he had nothing to do with LulzSec, ostensibly.Not long after the arrest of "Chippy1337" (real name: Ryan Cleary), yet another supposed LulzSec "official" was reported. Mr. Cleary was also former Anonymous and had helped "XYZ" publish the server logs -- and like Mr. Cavenaugh, was doxed. Now, Mr. Cleary remained close to some in Anonymous and was indeed serving as a spokesperson for LulzSec. But reportedly he had nothing to do with the actual operations.

How convenient, it seems. The U.S. law enforcement is hungry to catch a LulzSec hacker and a low-ranking spokesperson who ran afoul of LulzSec's parent group (Anonymous) gets handed into their lap.

In the end it appears Scotland's "Topiary" met a similar fate as "Chippy1337" and "XYZ" -- arrested by authorities who were led down the wrong trail by the clever members of Anonymous and LulzSec.

Supporting evidence of this conclusion can be found in several videos [1][2][3] in which Topiary speaks in Swedish or with a Swedish accent (while a member of Anonymous). Given this and the chat logs, it appears that police have the wrong guy.

Of course, the possibility remains that the chat log comments were just misdirection. But there's too many clues pointing in the direction of Sweden to ignore that possibility, at this point.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled